Effect of surface modification on the radiation stability of diamond ohmic contacts

The ohmic contact interface between diamond and metal is essential for the application of diamond detectors.Surface modification can significantly affect the contact performance and eliminate the interface polarization effect.However,the radiation stability of a diamond detector is also sensitive to surface modification.In this work,the influence of surface modification technology on a diamond ohmic contact under high-energy radiation was investigated.Before radiation,the specific contact resistivities(ρc)between Ti/Pt/Au-hydrogen-terminated diamond(H-diamond)and Ti/Pt/Au-oxygenterminated diamond(O-diamond)were 2.0×10^(-4)W·cm^(2) and 4.3×10^(-3)Wcm^(2),respectively.After 10 MeV electron radiation,the ρc of Ti/Pt/Au H-diamond and Ti/Pt/Au O-diamond were 5.3×10^(-3)W·cm^(2)and 9.1×10^(-3)W·cm^(2),respectively.The rates of change of ρc of H-diamond and O-diamond after radiation were 2550%and 112%,respectively.The electron radiation promotes bond reconstruction of the diamond surface,resulting in an increase in ρc.

Comparison of α particle detectors based on single-crystal diamond films grown in two types of gas atmospheres by microwave plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition

Chemical vapor deposition(CVD)-grown diamond films have been developed as irradiation-resistant materials to replace or upgrade current detectors for use in extreme radiation environments. However, their sensitivity in practical applications has been inhibited by space charge stability issues caused by defects and impurities in pure diamond crystal materials. In this study, two high-quality CVD-grown single-crystal diamond(SCD) detectors with low content of nitrogen impurities were fabricated and characterized. The intrinsic properties of the SCD samples were characterized using Raman spectroscopy, stereomicroscopy, and X-ray diffraction with the rocking curve mode, cathode luminescence(CL), and infrared and ultraviolet-visible-near infrared spectroscopies. After packaging the detectors, the dark current and energy resolution under α particle irradiation were investigated. Dark currents of less than 5 pA at 100 V were obtained after annealing the electrodes, which is comparable with the optimal value previously reported. The detector that uses a diamond film with higher nitrogen content showed poor energy resolution, whereas the detector with more dislocations showed poor charge collection efficiency(CCE). This demonstrates that the nitrogen content in diamond has a significant effect on the energy resolution of detectors, while the dislocations in diamond largely contribute to the poor CCE of detectors.

Enhanced deposition of Zn O films by Li doping using radio frequency reactive magnetron sputtering

Radio frequency(RF) reactive magnetron sputtering was utilized to deposit Li-doped and undoped zinc oxide(Zn O) films on silicon wafers. Various Ar/O2 gas ratios by volume and sputtering powers were selected for each deposition process. The results demonstrate that the enhanced Zn O films are obtained via Li doping. The average deposition rate for doped Zn O films is twice more than that of the undoped films. Both atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy studies indicate that Li doping significantly contributes to the higher degree of crystallinity of wurtzite–Zn O. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrates that Li doping promotes the(002) preferential orientation in Li-doped Zn O films. However, an increase in the Zn O lattice constant, broadening of the(002) peak and a decrease in the peak integral area are observed in some Li-doped samples, especially as the form of Li2 O. This implies that doping with Li expands the crystal structure and thus induces the additional strain in the crystal lattice. The oriented-growth Li-doped Zn O will make significant applications in future surface acoustic wave devices.

Ohmic contact properties of p-type surface conductive layer on H-terminated diamond films prepared by DC arc jet CVD

With the advantages of high deposition rate and large deposition area, polycrystalline diamond films prepared by direct current （DC） arc jet chemical vapor deposition （CVD） are considered to be one of the most promising materials for high-frequency and high-power electronic devices. In this paper, high-quality self-standing polycrystalline diamond films with the diameter of 100 mm were prepared by DC arc jet CVD, and then, the p-type surface conductive layer with the sheet carrier density of 10^11-10^13 cm-2 on the H-terminated diamond film was obtained by micro-wave hydrogen plasma treatment for 40 min. Ti/Au and Au films were deposited on the H-terminated diamond surface as the ohmic contact electrode, respectively, afterwards, they were treated by rapid vacuum annealing at different temperatures. The properties of these two types of ohmic contacts were investigated by measuring the specific contact resistance using the transmission line method （TLM）. Due to the formation of Ti-related carbide at high temperature, the specific contact resistance of Ti/Au contact gradually decreases to 9.95 × 10^-5 Ω-cm2 as the temperature increases to 820℃. However, when the annealing temperature reaches 850℃, the ohmic contact for Ti/Au is degraded significantly due to the strong diffusion and reaction between Ti and Au. As for the as-deposited Au contact, it shows an ohmic contact. After annealing treatment at 550℃, low specific contact resistance was detected for Au contact, which is derived from the enhancement of interdiffusion between Au and diamond films.

Carrier transport characteristics of H-terminated diamond films prepared using molecular hydrogen and atomic hydrogen

The H-terminated diamond films, which exhibit high surface conductivity, have been used in high-frequency and high-power electronic devices. In this paper, the surface conductive channel on specimens from the same diamond film was obtained by hydrogen plasma treatment and by heating under a hydrogen atmosphere, respectively, and the surface carrier transport characteristics of both samples were compared and evaluated. The results show that the carrier mobility and carrier density of the sample treated by hydrogen plasma are 15 cm^2·V^（-1）·s^（-1） and greater than 5 × 1012 cm^（-2）, respectively, and that the carrier mobilities measured at five different areas are similar. Compared to the hydrogen-plasma-treated specimen, the thermally hydrogenated specimen exhibits a lower surface conductivity, a carrier density one order of magnitude lower, and a carrier mobility that varies from 2 to 33 cm^2·V^（-1）·s^（-1）. The activated hydrogen atoms restructure the diamond surface, remove the scratches, and passivate the surface states via the etching effect during the hydrogen plasma treatment process, which maintains a higher carrier density and a more stable carrier mobility.

Orientation variation along growth direction of millimeter free-standing CVD diamond thinned by mechanical grinding

A free-standing diamond film with millimeter thickness prepared by DC arc plasma jet was thinned successively by mechanical grinding. The orientation and quality of the diamond films with different thicknesses were characterized by X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The results show a random grain-orientatinn distribution during the initial growth stage. As the film thickness increases, the preferred orientation of the diamond film changes from （111） to （220）, due to the competitive growth mechanism. Twinning generated during the nucleation stage appears to stabilize the preferential growth along the 〈110〉 direction. The interplanar spacing of the （220） plane is enlarged as the film thickness increases, which is caused by the increase of non-diamond-phase carbon and impurities under the cyclic gas. In addition, the quality of the diamond film is barely degraded during the growth process. Furthermore, the peak shift demonstrates a significant inhomogeneity of stress along the film growth direction, which results from competitive growth.

Surface Carbonization of GaN and the Related Structure Evolution during the Annealing Process

To explain the stabilization mechanism of the carbon-ion-implanted GaN under the diamond growth environment,the luminescence characteristics and structure evolution correlative with sites'carbon atoms located for highfluence carbon-ion-implanted Ga N are discussed.GaN is implanted with carbon ion using fluence of 2×10^(17)cm^(-2)and energy of 45 keV.Then the implanted samples are annealed at 800℃for 20 min and 1 h under the N_(2) atmosphere.The luminescence characteristics of carbon-ion-implanted GaN are evaluated by photoluminescence spectrum at wavelength 325 nm.The lattice damage of Ga N is characterized by Raman spectrum and the corresponding vacancy-defect evolution before and after annealing is measured by slow positron annihilation.The results show that most of the carbon atoms will be located at the interstitial sites after carbon ion implantation due to the weak mobility.As the implanted samples are annealed,strong yellow luminescence is emitted and the vacancies for Ga(V_(Ga))are reduced resulting from the migration of interstitial carbon(C_(i))and formation of complexes(CGaand/or C_(Ga)-C_(i))between them.As the annealing time is prolonged,the carbon ions accommodated by the vacancies are saturated,vacancy clusters with carbon atoms appear and the concentration of C_(Ga)diminishes,which will have an adverse effect on the diamond film nucleation and growth.